Este fin de semana

Hola!  I'm back, with a few more adventures under my belt.  On Friday, instead of having my art class we went to the Museo de los Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum).  This is the same museum that I went to the first week with a few friends, but this time we went back with someone who knew the pieces and could explain them to us (hint: it was our professor).  We first walked through the patio, which was perfectly square and had a fountain in the middle.  My professor was saying something about how this "room" had to be perfectly square and that the ceiling was the sky, to connect the heavens to the earth, but I don't remember why he said this was (something about the church, but I was busy taking pictures and not focusing on what he said).  Around the patio were all different stone figures from different times.  Some were statues, some were pots, but one in particular was a coffin/horse trough.  Yes, you heard me right.  Originally it was constructed to be a coffin and held someone's remains.  However, years later someone else found it, took out the remains, and used it to feed and water their horses.  Talk about disrespecting the dead.

Palm in hand, eyes on plate

Inside the museum there were exhibits from the Medieval Ages through the 19th century.  Even though our class is modern art (meaning end of the 19th century and 20th century), our professor knew an awful lot about the other pieces.  He explained different bits about the paintings with saints (for example, if they were killed because of being Christian, they will ho
ld a palm in their hand.  Also, if they have a plate with a body part, they were killed by means of whatever body part they hold).

Joaquín Sorolla

Later, we went into an exhibit with paintings by Joaquín Sorolla.  This exhibit was a bit more like our class because it was more impressionist.  Impressionism is when the artist paints reality by painting what they see.  It is generally characterized by light, focal points, and distance.  Some parts of the painting are clear, while others are more fuzzy and more of a sketch because they have less light, are farther, or aren't the artist's focal point.  In the picture I have on the left, you can see this in the lack of detail on the horse's outfit, as well as in the leaves (they're just colors, they aren't individual leaves drawn out).  This is different from previous paintings because in prior ages paintings with more detailed were considered better and worth more.

Friday afternoon I went to a dance recital for my host mom's niece.  This family is also hosting a student (Maggie) and Maggie invited me to go with them.  It was similar to the dance recitals I've been in before, except it was a lot shorter (an hour and a half max) and it was a lot more relaxed.  The dance recital was put on by the school the niece and nephew attend.  What's cool about this school is that everyone does some sport and the sport is taught during the day.  So the dancers there learned how to dance (and do some gymnastics) during their school day.  For the boys, there's soccer (of course!), basketball, karate, boxing, and who knows what else!  And the girls can participate in these sports, too!

Catedral while eating tapas

Friday night, I went back to la Taberna de la Reina for more tapas.  I was hoping we'd try somewhere else (specifically a place called Sagardi), but I was late and they had already decided by that point.  The tapas were still good, and the sangria I had there was great!  After tapas, we went to a chocolate shop, and let's just say I was perfectly happy with this choice ;) I got a chocolate covered crepe with chocolate ice cream (it was on the menu, so why not!)  The other choices at my table were more chocolate ice cream, churros with chocolate, and a chocolate covered croissant.

CHOCOLATE!

After eating, we went back to the Festival de las Naciones.  This time I didn't want to eat, so Jordan and I went shopping/browsing at the stands there.  I did buy something, but it's not for me and I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone.  Also, if you saw my Facebook status you know that some guy was hitting on me.  It was awkward and I'm not going into details, but if you want the punchline check Facebook.  Needless to say, I'm fine and our entire group was cracking up about it the rest of the weekend!

Saturday rolled around and I was off to Xátiva, another castle.  This one was about an hour drive from Valencia (I slept the entire way).  When we got to Xátiva, we first had a tour of the pueblo, seeing some of the most important sites.  The most interesting one was the church there.  This church took some 300 years to build.  Why?  Well lots of reasons.  It was started at the end of the 16th century, but at one point the ran out of money, at another Felipe V burnt it down (this was after the War of Spanish Succession, where Felipe V became king.  Xátiva supported Carlos, and when he lost Felipe wanted to teach them and the rest of Spain a lesson), and at another point in time there was an earthquake that destroyed parts of it.  Three hundred years later, the church was deemed finished, but looking at it it doesn't look finished.  It's still missing a tower and there was supposed to be an arch connecting the two towers, also.  However 300 years of construction make people a bit impatient.  Another interesting fact about the church is that its about a square foot bigger than Valencia's Cathedral.  This isn't supposed to happen, ever!  But when the church in Xátiva was being built, Xátiva didn't want to be a part of the autonomous community of Valencia (or if they were they wanted to be the most important city) and part of that includes have the community's cathedral.  You see, there can only be one cathedral in each autonomous community.  Xátiva, which was the second most powerful city in Valencia back in the 16th century, was vying for that number one spot and hoped that this church would but them there.  It didn't, but it did give them a church larger than the Cathedral!

an upside down Felipe V

After the tour, we had half an hour at the museum in the pueblo of Xátiva before heading up to the castle.  In this museum there is a painting of Felipe V that people traveled from all over Spain to see, and not because it's a phenomenal painting!  Remember how I said that Xátiva supported Carlos in the war?  When he lost and Felipe V became king, Xátiva was required to hang up a picture of their king.  They obliged, but because they still didn't support him, the picture was hung upside down and it still is today.  Clearly Xátiva knows how to hold a grudge.

Bathroom anyone?

My visit to the castle was fun, too, and really made me wish the U.S. had castles!  We hiked up to the top (the hike wasn't nearly as long or as steep as it seemed it would be), however hiking up through the castle was a little steep.  However, the views from the top were pretty, and it was a lot of fun running through the ruins of all the different rooms.  There was even a prison in the castle, and 570 years ago on June 1 (the day we were there), someone died in the prison.  Talk about being a little creepy (we didn't see any ghosts though!)  Another funny "room" was the bathroom.  It wasn't actually a bathroom, but it was were the latrines used to be, and they had them sitting there as if you could use them now!  Looking down, there was a hole in the bottom that drained down the mountain.  After running around for an hour and a half, we hiked back down the mountain and hopped on the bus.  I slept the whole way home!

the Lower Castle

Now, my weekend isn't over yet, oh no!!  Last night (Saturday night), I took a taxi with a few friends - 15 to be exact - to a pueblo named Bétera, about 20 minutes outside of Valencia.  We went all the way out there to see some bulls!  It wasn't bull running like Pamplona, nor was it bull fighting, but it was still bulls and still terrifying and thrilling at the same time!  We got there around 11;30pm or so, and the running didn't start until midnight, so we had a bit of time to hang out and get our bearings.  Where we were was a rectangular plaza type area.  There were streets running down the two long sides, and in between these streets was a lowered pit area (it was about 3 feet down, but there were stairs to get to it and larger steps for sitting on).  Around the outside of the plaza were restaurants and bars.  Now, you could see that this place was ready for a bull because the entrance to every bar and restaurant, as well as the windows, had metal bars across them.  These bars were wide enough for people to get through but too small for a bull.  There were also cages like this in the middle of the pit for people to run into to escape the bull.  The idea was that if the bull were coming your way, everyone raced towards one of these cages to get to safety and not be stabbed by the bull.  Not only would that be bad in a normal situation because of the bulls horns, but these horns were lit on fire!

Bull!

At midnight, a firework went off to tell everyone that they were letting the bull out.  It came out of the truck and was riled up and ready to go.  The horns were lit and the bull released.  This is when people (namely boys in their late teens or twenties) antagonized the bull.  They tried to get its attention and get it to run towards them, before sprinting off or escaping behind bars.  The whole thing was terrifying and exciting.  I wanted to move closer to see and get pictures (Erin's being a tourist), but then the bull would start coming my way and I freaked out and  sprinted towards the bars, being pushed by everyone around me to safety as they were trying to do the same thing.  Some people got really close, but I always kept my distance.  I did get some good pictures though!  :)  I also got to talk with the cutest grandfatherly old man.  He at first heard me and another girl (Emily) talking in English and was teasing us for that, but when he realized we could speak Spanish, too, he told us all sorts of things, about his life, where he's traveled, and other things.  He also warned us like 50 some times that we had to be safe and to watch out for the bull because this specific bull was more dangerous than normal.  It was precious and quite possibly the highlight of my night.

The first bull lasted until about 1, at which point point two cows were brought out to calm him down and rally him back into the truck.  Then, about 20 minutes later, a second bull was released.  This bull was quite a tamer than the first, but this time I was inside one of the cages inside the pit instead of staying on the outside. Boy did that cage get stuffed quickly when the bull came near!  It was definitely exciting and something I'm glad to have experienced here in Spain.  We left before the second bull was done (it was 2ish at this point) and called a taxi to get back home.

Corpus Christi and the musicians

This morning, I went to 10am mass at the Catedral.  This was my first time going to a Catholic mass, and boy was I confused!!  Mass was in Spanish and Latin, and it was sung (the 10am mass is the singing one), which is confusing enough to start, but today was also Corpus Christi, so mass was different from normal.  Corpus Christi is the day of thanksgiving for holy communion and is a relatively big religious holiday in Spain (although not the biggest).  I'm proud to say that I did understand some of the Spanish, but definitely not all of it.  Part of the holiday involves giant figures of people that were sitting outside the church.  I honestly have no idea what they're for, but there were a lot of people out to see them and there were musicians playing as the figures were moved around.

After church, I wandered around la Plaza de la Reina with some friends.  We were shopping at the little stands there and getting souvenirs (or starting to get ideas) for friends and family members.  After that I came home to do homework and write this post.  Later today I'm skyping my family (woohoo!) and then I have to do homework and study for my two exams this week.  I'll let you know what else happens this week!  Maybe I'll have another post this long!

Oh wait, one more thing.  Pablo moved into a big boy bed last night!!  And he did great, he slept there all night long.  Go Pablo!